New PC fan - very noisy

[davejonesbkk]

So I took my desktop to Banana IT on Sunday as the front fan in the tower had gotten very noisy and also to get it upgraded. The broken fan had come with the tower which is about 18 months old and was always very quiet and practically silent.

I had a fan by the same manufacturer (Cooler Master) and same size and quality installed, it cost about 500 baht and they put it in for me at the shop while adding my SSD etc, it seemed quiter in the shop but I guess I should have properly listened to it in a quiet environment because as soon as I turned it on at home it was very loud, not as loud as the previous one when it was broken and it doesn't sound like it's installed wrong but it just whirs far too loudly and it's too distracting. My PC tower is pretty big and well ventilated plus my PC only heats up when I run high end games which isn't often these days so so I've just unplugged this fan for now.

Any solutions?

I've been told I should go to Pantip and get an expensive quiet fan but I'm worried I may have the same problem again and I'd rather get this one running quiter.

I read that the noise might be due to the fan running too fast and I downloaded SpeedFan but couldn't figure out how to slow the fan down or if that's even possible...

[Dork]

Is the fan installed the correct way around? If they are blowing in the opposing direction to a rear case fan or the power supply fan that can make them noisier.

[davejonesbkk]

Pretty sure I do yes, same setup as old one, I have the front fan facing out so its sucking air IN and then the fan at the back facing inwards so its sucking air OUT, my front fan is exactly the same as the one here on the left:

[Dork]

The fan speed can only be controlled if it is plugged into the mainboard, not if it is just connected to the power supply like some case fans are. If it is connected to the mainboard there may be a setting in the bios to either run at full speed or variably. Perhaps whoever installed the new fan changed that.

If it isn't a speed issue, perhaps you could take the fan out of the case and see if it is still noisy. If it is then I guess no choice but to change it. I recall that there is a big difference in price between cheap & expensive case fans.

[Daffy D]

Why do you have a fan sucking air out of the back?

You may be creating a bit of a vacuum which is affecting the balanced running of the front fan. Try disconnecting the rear fan and see what happens.

The best cooling is by having positive pressure in the computer case, that is have fan or fans sucking in at the front and letting the air find it's own way out the vent holes at the rear.

[chiman]

At Pantip, there is a shop called Jedi and they are very reliable. Tell them you want a silent PC and look at their water cooling systems, which cost the same or less than fan cooling systems these days. Also, there is a brand of fans called "Noctua" and they are dead silent, but hard to find in Thailand, I have them shipped over via EMS. Also, there is noise dampening material that you can put into your PC to absorb noise if you wanna go nuts =)

[almodeller]

is the fan blades catching or rubbing on something?

[bkk_mike]

I actually have a cooler master case and replaced the noisy fans it came with with Noctua ones.

The issue was probably more that it came with fans with 3-pin connections, but my motherboard has 4-pin (PWM) connections, so I switched to PWM fans.

It's a matter of chalk and cheese, from it being too loud to use the PC to watch movies, to noticing how noisy the fan in the next room is.

[ignis]

-it cost about 500 baht-

would have thought that was a very expensive fan ? always buy thicker fans for my case between 40 - 60 baht each. Never use Air Con, at moment still cold so floor fan off, cannot hear my tower which is on my desktop....... 4 fans + side 10" fan + double Graphics card fans + 4x double hard drive fans on each of my 4 hard drives + Cooler Master big CPU fan + PSU fans.. Tower is 70 cm away from my ear all = a faint buss

Edited February 26, 2014 by ignis

[TPG3]

I also think that one blowing and one sucking fan is not the right way. A sucking fan will create the correct airstream. 2 Fans may interfere

[JesseFrank]

I also think that one blowing and one sucking fan is not the right way. A sucking fan will create the correct airstream. 2 Fans may interfere

And where would you go with all the cool air that is blown into the case if there isn't a single one sucking it out again after it heated up ?

[y2k]

I would check that the noise is actually coming from the case fans. I found that the majority of my noise was coming from the cpu fan. Took it off, cleaned it and my pc was back to being a quiet and happy camper.

[davejonesbkk]

Why do you have a fan sucking air out of the back?

You may be creating a bit of a vacuum which is affecting the balanced running of the front fan. Try disconnecting the rear fan and see what happens.

The best cooling is by having positive pressure in the computer case, that is have fan or fans sucking in at the front and letting the air find it's own way out the vent holes at the rear.

This is the same setup I had before with the old one and it was fine, I've also seen diagrams recommending this as then air is pulled in across the components and then out the back, I've no idea if this is the best setup or not.

[davejonesbkk]

When I was setting up the new SSD the other day I'm pretty sure I saw something in bios about changing fan speeds so will investigate that.

The noise is definitely coming from this front fan, doesn't sound like it's catching on anything too, just whirs too loud, I have it disconnected for now anyway and th PC is back to being silent.

Will check out a high end fan next time I have chance to go to fortune IT mall (hate Pantip) and yeah I'm pretty sure I got ripped of over this new fan and was aware of that at the time as they went to buy it from another shop because 'Mai mee' at Banana IT but didn't care at the time

[ignis]

Looks like Cooler Master are much more expensive, this one is 200 baht with LED light..

http://www.advice.co.th/products/preview.php?code=A0057591

So say the Silent one is 470 baht

http://www.advice.co.th/products/preview.php?code=A0063395

Edited February 26, 2014 by ignis

[Tywais]

There is some wrong information regarding fan installation. The front (lower) fan should be the intake fan to bring cool air in. The back, higher fan, should be the exhaust fan to pull the hot air from the top of the case. The power supply also has a fan and it is also an exhaust fan but for different reasons and to force the heat generated by the power supply out.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Which-is-the-Best-Place-to-Install-a-Case-Fan-Part-1/1473

[kaveh]

so many factors in noisy fan:

1- the fan material (that you said you changed to a quieter one)

2- fan speed, too low or too high (try to tune in the range, written on the fan face)

3- case size; the bigger tower, the more eco

4- shaking: fixed or loose. check the screwes and location fitness. i also recommand using a kind of plastic rings to isolate fan from case wall; to reduce shaking noise

5- too tight; fan has not enough room to circulate air

6- wrong direction! most fans should fix in a particular direction and because they are box shaped, this is so normal for technichian to fit it in a wrong direction (ex., fan tries to circulate in a wrong direcrion, near the wrong window/path).

sorry guys my english sucks

Edited February 26, 2014 by kaveh

[JSixpack]

As said above, look in the BIOS to see if you can slow the fan.

There are resistor kits to slow fans, but you can't find them in Thailand AFAIK.

If you can't slow the fan, you just need to buy another one that's known and advertised as quiet. To get an idea, you can look at newegg.com:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=quiet+case+fan&N=-1&isNodeId=1

Smaller selection in Thailand, of course. Look here:

http://www.invadeit.co.th/search/case-fan/

http://tkcom99.com/index.php?is_product=Y&s_type_id=10&s_cat_id=76

http://tkcom99.com/index.php?is_product=Y&s_type_id=10&s_cat_id=188

I put Scythes in my old box and I was happy. They were extremely quiet. My present box has quiet Corsairs and I'm happy w/ those, too.

Tywais, above, has the right idea about airflow in a standard case. I wouldn't be obsessed with it, however, as seen in the case mod threads on computer forums.

[ignis]

spoke to soon, fan very noisy this morning, having lots took time to check all, is the one inside the Power Supply, another job to do..

[steve187]

120mm fans are better in psu

[Tywais]

120mm fans are better in psu

Many psu use 80mm fans so that needs to be verified before disassembling the PS and buying the fan. It is also possible to lubricate the sleeve bearing but that may be a short term solution. Fan replacement instructions

[mrfaroukh]

The fun need a service, you better do it as soon as possible or else your computer will be destroyed in a short time. You are lucky if it get okay by service, if not try to change the piece not working. My laptop got destroyed this way.

[ignis]

The fun need a service, you better do it as soon as possible or else your computer will be destroyed in a short time. You are lucky if it get okay by service, if not try to change the piece not working. My laptop got destroyed this way.

Yes fixed it have a load of fans among other PC things in one of the spare bedrooms.